Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:33:58 -0500 From: Tom Rhodes <trhodes@FreeBSD.org> To: "Rene Ladan" <r.c.ladan@gmail.com> Cc: trhodes@FreeBSD.org, doc@FreeBSD.org, pgj@FreeBSD.org, gabor@kovesdan.org, keramida@FreeBSD.org, remko@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: A patch for the 'geom' chapter Message-ID: <20081124153358.7a539e67.trhodes@FreeBSD.org> In-Reply-To: <e890cae60811241157p520238a2k4403f13cf340e403@mail.gmail.com> References: <492AE607.4020208@gmail.com> <20081124135107.06a8af26.trhodes@FreeBSD.org> <87abbp3q5o.fsf@kobe.laptop> <492B01C4.6090707@gmail.com> <e890cae60811241157p520238a2k4403f13cf340e403@mail.gmail.com>
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On Mon, 24 Nov 2008 20:57:14 +0100 "Rene Ladan" <r.c.ladan@gmail.com> wrote: > 2008/11/24 Manolis Kiagias <sonic2000gr@gmail.com>: > > Giorgos Keramidas wrote: > >> On Mon, 24 Nov 2008 13:51:07 -0500, Tom Rhodes <trhodes@FreeBSD.org> wrote: > >> > >>> On Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:36:07 +0200 > >>> Manolis Kiagias <sonic2000gr@gmail.com> wrote: > >>> > >>>> http://people.freebsd.org/~manolis/geom.txt > >>>> > >> > >> > >>> This looks pretty good actually. I would probably change the > >>> following: > >>> > >>> + <example> > >>> + <title>Labeling Your Boot Disk's Partitions</title> > >>> > >>> to: > >>> > >>> <title>Labeling Partitions on the Boot Disk</title> > >>> > >>> And there are a lot of "You" references. I've tried to write this > >>> without invoking the user as much as possible and may make reading the > >>> entire chapter difficult. I would prefer we not talk to the user > >>> though. > >>> > >> > >> I am not sure if I will have the time to read the full patch tonight, > >> but Tom is quite right about avoiding "you" when possible. > >> > >> > > Thanks. I will try to rephrase most parts into passive voice where > > possible. I guess I am somewhat influenced by the Greek translations, > > where sometimes passive voice sounds unnatural ;) > > > I think the same is true for the Dutch language. Using passive voice > sometimes sounds too formal/distant IMHO (it makes me think of legal > texts). Active voice also involves the reader more. It also makes it > possible to refer to e.g. 'their computer' instead of 'a computer', which > can be useful in examples. While true, it does have a few flaws, including it can make incorrect assumptions about the reader's sex, environment, etc. and adds a little less professionalism. So I try to write all my documentation carefully to avoid addressing the reader. Sometimes it would be easier, but that doesn't really make it right. In translations, though, I think it should be up to the initial teams. It could be very different for languages which I do not speak, whether passive voice is incorrect. :) -- Tom Rhodes
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